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    The Winter Mantle
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    The Winter Mantle
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    The Winter Mantle
    Ebook614 pages11 hours

    The Winter Mantle

    By Elizabeth Chadwick

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Normandy 1067---William may have conquered England, but it is a conquest of a different kind that one English earl has in mind.

    Fresh from his defeat of King Harold at the Battle of Hastings, William of Normandy has returned home in triumph, accompanied by the English nobles he cannot trust to leave behind. For Waltheof of Huntington, however, rebellion is not at the forefront of his thoughts. From the moment he catches sight of Judith, daughter of the King's formidable sister, he knows he has found his future wife.

    When Waltheof saves Judith's life, it is clear that the attraction is mutual. But marriage has little to do with love in medieval Europe. When William refuses to let the couple wed, Waltheof joins forces with his fellow rebels in an uprising against the King. William brutally crushes the rebellion, but realizes that Waltheof cannot be ignored. Marrying him to his niece, he decides, is the perfect way to keep him in check.

    But is the match between the Saxon earl and Norman lady made in heaven or hell? As their children grow, Waltheof and Judith must choose between their feelings for each other and older loyalties. At the same time, the reputation of Waltheof's Norman acquaintance Simon de Senlis continues to flourish. The son of William's chamberlain, he shares a special bond with Waltheof, who rescued him from being trampled by a horse when he was a squire. Now Simon enjoys the confidence of both the King and the rebel earl. And when tension between the two ignites once more, it is Simon who is set to reap the reward.

    Based on an astonishing true story of honor, treachery, and love, The Winter Mantle is historical fiction at its very best, reaching from the turbulent reign of William the conqueror to the high drama of the Crusades.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMay 21, 2013
    ISBN9781466845688
    Unavailable
    The Winter Mantle
    Author

    Elizabeth Chadwick

    Elizabeth Chadwick lives in Nottingham with her husband and two sons. She is a member of Regia Anglorum, an early medieval reenactment society, and tutors in writing historical and romantic fiction. She won a Betty Trask Award for The Wild Hunt, her first novel, and was shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists' Award in 1998 for The Champion. Her novel Lords of the White Castle won the WordWeaving Award of Excellence, and The Falcons of Montabard, her thirteenth novel, was shortlisted for the U.K.'s Parker Romantic Novel of the Year Award for 2004.

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    Reviews for The Winter Mantle

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      Another ELizabeth Chadwick win for me. I have yet to find one of her books that I don't like; this is just another example of just how good she really is for me.Like all her other stories, I literally lived the time period through her words. Little details like herb-scented rushes and vivid tapestries hanging on the wall, all told through the narrative of the story and not just explained out, help to bring this story to life like few other authors can. At first I wasn't as thrilled with Chadwick's choice to tell two stories in one; I usually like to focus on the one story and finish it throughout the book. Yet, she made this work. The story of Judith and Waelthof flowed smoothly into that of their daughter Matilda and husband Simon without a hitch. The author brought everyone to vivid life as well, with no one short-shifted in the characterization department to focus on other bigger names. Everyone was very well-rounded with both virtues and flaws out in vivid display. There were no perfect jewels of humanity in this story! I eagerly move onto the next Chadwick book on my list, but Winter Mantle will always be a story I return to for the two storyline format she chose. It's another beautiful example of her writing and is to be savored.
    • 5/5
      Set in the years after the Norman Conquest, The Winter Mantle begins with the Waltheof and Judith, one an English captive and the other a Norman and the niece of William of Normandy. They should hate each other, right? They marry for love (or lust), though not all is a bed of roses. The story continues on into the next generation with their daughter, Matilda, and Simon de Senlis, a young Norman knight.Chadwick’s historical fiction is always top-notch. She really knows how to transport her readers back into another time, into the lives of people who jump off the page, even though they’ve been dead for hundreds of years. I love how she makes the reader become emotionally invested in her characters, even though you might not like them—Judith certainly isn’t my favorite of Chadwick’s heroines, but I really got involved in her story. According to Chadwick’s note at the end, it’s been popularly believed that Judith held some responsibility for betraying her husband to William, but the author handles this detail very well, I thought. And Waltheof is certainly no William Marshal, but I was sympathetic towards him, too.Another thing I love about this book is how well-researched it is. Chadwick probably spends more time and exerts more energy researching her settings and people than other authors do, and it certainly shows here. The Winter Mantle covers thirty years of history, but Chadwick doesn’t skimp on anything to give her readers a sweeping novel about love, hope and faith. I have a copy of The Falcons of Montabard on my ever-growing TBR pile, and I have about a half dozen more EC books on order.
    • 4/5
      The Winter Mantle begins in 1067 after The Conquest as Waltheof of Huntingdon and several other English nobles are kept under William's close eye in Normandy. Waltheof desires William's haughty niece Judith and is torn between making his peace with William and pressing suit for her hand or participating in further rebellion against the Norman conquerors. After one rebellion in the north fails, William forgives Waltheof and marries him to Judith, although she is torn between pride in her Norman ancestry and desire for her husband, and this eventually leads to discord in the marriage. Waltheof allows himself to be convinces to participate in one last attempt at overthrowing William, and this time with drastic results. The story then takes up with the second generation, Waltheof's beloved daughter Matilda and Norman courtier Simon de Senlis who at the behest of King William Rufus comes to take charge of the lands Judith inherited from Waltheof. Furious, the ever haughty Judith refuses to cooperate and wed Simon and he turns his eye to Matilda as a younger and more appealing choice. The story then continues as Matilda and Simon raise their children, and Judith finally comes to terms with her own guilt in Waltheof's fate and his death as a traitor, as well as the consequences to Simon and Judith's marriage from Simon’s actions on his return from the Crusades. Based on true people, this was a lively entertaining tale and I very much enjoyed how the author was able to take such a snotty piece of goods like Judith and humanize her in the end - it really was a love/hate relationship between she and Waltheof and in many ways those two warring emotions are very much the same. As with all of her books, Chadwick has an amazing knack of bringing the medieval period to life, be it the sights, sounds, smells, food, clothing and more. Highly recommended and a side note that the tiny baby at the very end of the book has his own story in The Falcons of Montabard.
    • 3/5
      A very strong medieval historical novel that follows actual historical figures—and to those who know my reading habits, I usually hate that sort of thing. My kind of historical fiction is much more in line with Judith Merkle Riley than Sharon Kay Penman, but this was pretty great. It has some romance novel leanings (including two, count-em, TWO Deflowering The Virgin love scenes) but makes up for it with meticulous period detail, interesting angles on historic events and really solid characterization. And for all its capital-R romance, this book is certainly not beholden to that genre’s mandatory Happily Ever After. In fact, this caught me running to the bathroom for tissues halfway through.It follows the real-life story of Waltheof, a Saxon lord taken prisoner by William the Conqueror after the Battle of Hastings, who falls in love with Judith, William’s niece. Judith is strong-willed and has glimmerings of happiness with Waltheof, but she’s held back by emotional damage inflicted by her domineering mother. Instead of allowing herself unsettling happiness, she takes refuge in duty and convention and propriety, and comes to hate her big-hearted husband. Waltheof is none too bright (politically) but is a very likeable, good character. Their marriage falls to spectacular ruin, involving a betrayal Judith will always hold on her conscience. Fast forward a few years later, and it seems that the whole sorry tale is going to be played out again with her daughter, Matilda. But perhaps she and her husband, Simon de Senlis, can find a way through the minefield of their pride and sensitivities to truly love each other.Judith is so cruel and closed off, she can be hard to take as a narrator, but Chadwick does such an excellent job with her story that I couldn’t put it down. My real problem was that beside her mother and grandmother, Matilda is a shade of a character. She weds Simon literally the same day she meets him, and though there are believable reasons given for this (the need to get from under her mothers thumb, ambition, liking the set of his breeches), the one that seems to matter the most is a thoroughly unlikely Love. Not that she wouldn’t think it love at the beginning, but you never see the real thing blossom between them in a meaningful way. Even though Waltheof and Judith’s courtship ended tragically, at least you saw it happen and could believe every step of it. I feel almost like Chadwick wanted Matilda to thematically expiate her mother’s mistakes, without realizing that first she had to feel her mother’s love.
    • 5/5
      This book takes you back to the 11th Century. The battle on the field and in the hearts. Chadwick does a wonderful job telling the story of mother/daughter and husband and father. It really takes you back in time. I had a hard time putting the book down. I enjoyed from beginning to end.